Earthquake

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Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 8:54 am

We didn't feel it down here in the South West.

I had to laugh at this quote from the BBC:

Quote:

Jamil Ali in Sheffield said: "I woke up and the first thing I thought was that there were a load of burglars in the house.

How often do burglars break in and shake all your furniture?

Incidentally, earthquakes occur all the time in the UK; but they're so small, you just don't feel them. The same goes for tornadoes - the UK has the highest concentration of tornadoes per surface area anywhere in the world, but they're normally mistaken for a light breeze. Surprised

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 9:57 am

ah well slept through another earthquake and never felt a thing
again

Shocked

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 9:59 am

Didn't notice a thing, I think I was in bed reading. Should've, iMike felt it and he's not far away.

I have noticed a couple before. I mistook one for Hayley running up the stairs like a baby elephant, she wasn't happy that I couldn't tell the difference. I dare say if we lived somewhere like Japan or Turkey I would be able to. Wink

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

I didn't feel the earth move in bed last night.
Didn't notice the earthquake either.

My sis in Bristol didn't notice it but a pal in Warrington was woken up by it.

My hubby and son experienced an earthquake in Tokyo.
Hubby said it was a bit alarming but the staff at the ryokan treated it as normal.
Son slept through it even when it rolled him out of bed ( he's a big lad )

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 10:12 am

Felt a bit of a rumble in Runcorn, I was just grinning like a daft sod since that's the first earthquake i've experienced.. apparently i've just slept through the others in my lifetime.

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 10:13 am

Only realised, this morning there had been an earthquake, felt a kind of vibration, go through the sofa, but nothing rattled in the cabinets. Thought i had been dreaming.

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 10:23 am

Juan wrote:

Showing my naivet� here, I didn't realize England was quake-prone...

Ahhh. Wheras you have the well-known San Andreas Fault, we have the lesser known Itsalltheeuropean-Unions Fault and Itsthebloodyimmegrants Fault.

These run throughout the length of the country, often causing minor shaking, trembling and raised blood pressure amongst certain members of the population.

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 3193

The last I heard this morning (and just checked with the BGS,) was 5.2 in Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, 5km below ground. I felt it at 12:57:25, a quick build-up followed by a slow decay with a second peak. The clotheshangers were rattling in the wardrobe. The SO and the dogs slept through it.

Google map of the epicentre.

Edit: Based on that, I'd say it was either the ItsTheTownies Fault or the ItsAllTheGovernments Fault.

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 10:51 am

^^^^^
Thanks Thud - I'd forgotten to mention those rural geological features. Smile

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

Up here we have Itsnomafault

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 12:12 pm

Kleindoofy wrote:

which I didn't feal here btw.

So, the earthquake was the first sign of the nearing apocalypse and KD misspelling such a word surely is the second sign of it!!! WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE someday Laughing

On topic: Glad to hear everybody is ok so far Smile

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 12:12 pm

@Roy -did the tiles stay up? Very Happy

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 1:08 pm

good to hear everyone is ok.. I have only been in two earthquakes in my life and I slept through them, the first one when I lived in Wi. I got up in the morning and saw pics on the walls all crooked and my sis told me it knocked her out of bed. when I got to school the teachers told us we were going to spend the whole day learning about them.
The other time was here a year or so ago.. my wife was up and she sead she felt it pass right under her... me i was sound asleep... i always miss everything

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 1:39 pm

well bloody hell, I miss all the fun Sad

Although it sounds like I wouldn't have felt it where i was staying anyways.

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 1:41 pm

Slept right through it. Didn't even know it had happened till a friend called and asked if I'd felt it. She lives up the road from me, and she said she thought someone had crashed into the front of her house... Typical that I'd snore my way through the whole planet shuffling about beneath my feet at 1 in the morning... I've always been a deep sleeper. Laughing

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 1:52 pm

An earthquake in the UK? Really? I did not know that you guys ever got those.

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 1:57 pm

As Breddan has said, we Brits don't tend to grumble about minor things like the Earth sloshing about beneath us... We like to grumble about the bigger things, like football...

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 3193

The BGS has updated it to 10km underground. I know you are all riveted by such an important update. There was an aftershock of 1.8ML at 2:46am.

It also says there is a report of one person being injured by a falling chimney. All the best, fella.

The BGS server is a bit slash-dotted at the moment, so feel free to PM me an email address if you want either of the two press releases. They also have an on-line questionnaire on the site for people to report their experiences. (They've had 1,400 already.)

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 2:22 pm

Quote:

ah well slept through another earthquake and never felt a thing
again

I'm with Remmy and Nanny Ogg... I would sleep through an atomic bomb hitting my house!

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 2:29 pm

Quote:

We like to grumble about the bigger things, like football...

Good thing that no british team is participating in the European Championship here in summer then, cause we Austrians aren�t used to earthquakes Wink

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 3193

There's now three press releases. Here's the text of the latest:

British Geological Survey wrote:

This preliminary isoseismal map is based on 1609 questionnaire responses received in the period of the first twelve hours after the earthquake. It also includes some information from other sources. It is highly provisional and subject to change.
At this stage it appears that the intensity distribution is somewhat irregular. There is no clear concentration of high intensities near the epicentre. Over an area bounded roughly by Liverpool, London and York, data have been fairly evenly spread. From many locations, too few locations have yet been received to determine intensity values. Where intensity values can be assigned, there seem to be pockets of higher intensity without a great deal of distinction due to distance. For this reason the isoseismals drawn here have a high degree of interpretation.
Outside this area, the density of replies drops sharply (partly this is a population distribution effect). Intensity 2 observations are noted from several locations in Ireland, from Edinburgh and Aberdeen, and it is rumoured, from the Netherlands.
As regards the highest intensities, there is no clear evidence for intensity 6 EMS either from the questionnaires or from field observation. The pattern of observations suggests a relatively deep focus.
Macroseismic parameters are, from current data, as follows:
Magnitude - 5.0 ML
Depth - 25-30 km

There's also a map of the isoseismals. 5 is close in, north of the wash. 4 includes the Midlands, but not far north of the 5 area, 3 cuts halfway into Wales and down to London. 2 clips the continent south of Dover, quite a bit of Ireland, and across the Cairngorms.

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 6:04 pm

It shook me up a bit... *groan*.

No really, I did find it more than a little unnerving to have the floor, walls and sofa moving independently of each other for a few seconds - which seem like an awfully long time under those circumstances. All the ornaments shifted (could tell by the disturbance in the, erm, deep dust), and I thought the bay window was going to fall out. Shocked

At a friend's house, only 8 miles from the Market Rasen epicentre, they even had a casualty to the tune of 1 x tea mug, which fell off the kitchen worktop! Later investigation may reveal that their mum jumped and knocked it off in the confusion... but we may never know. Confused

Still, the harrowing news clips of the untold devastation and destruction of so many innocent, er, chimney pots and cars with things falling on them is heartbreaking to see...

Laughing

Well, the experience added a bit of excitement to my night, although I could have done without the huge flood of adrenaline just as I was winding up to go to bed!

Edit: forgot to add serious note: my heart goes out to people in severe earthquake zones who fear for life and limb when these things happen... at least I've never had to go through that!

Elite Baiter Joined: 02 Jul 2006 Posts: 1702

The earth moved for all the english women last night - once every 30 years - explains a lot.

I thought it was wind, and when the bed began to shake, I blamed me GF, one in a million, didnt know it was an earthquake till i heard i heard the news this afternoon.

Its also supposed to have cause some improvements in some areas.

Millions of claims, and some scientist dude said the "warning alarm went off AFTER the quake hit" So much for cheap imported quake alarms. They should have use ADT monitored alarms, at least they accuse the home owners of being the burglars at 1am.

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 7:57 pm

Earthquakes in the UK are very much like making love to a beautiful woman....relatively rare in occurrence but sometimes if you are lucky the earth really does move and you don't fall out of bed. Shocked

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 11:35 pm

We had a 6.5 at Tahoe about 15 years ago. Flipped me off the couch where I had fallen asleep. My roomate came flying down the hallway, apparently awakened too. I held the cupboards closed to keep the dishes from flying out. Took 10 minutes to pry the cat off the celing. It was like a 45 second jackhammer ride.